Lit. mirror piling. A method of masonry used for a stone wall *ishigaki 石垣.…

Also written 架橋 and 懸橋. A wooden bridge that spans a water-filled moat. Supported by posts, the bridge can be removed when a…

A type of defensive gateway barrier *umadashi 馬出, consisting of an earthen…

Also written 隠口. A hidden castle entrance.

1　A castle entrance *…

Kamae is an earthen embankment constructed so that it cannot be invaded by an enemy. It has the same meaning as *…

A settlement surrounded by a moat. The earliest enclosed settlement appeared about 2000 years ago and is associated with the…

A dry moat, usually with a V-shaped cross-section called *yagenbori 薬研堀. The…

Also karameteguchi 搦手口. Term used for the rear gate of a castle from the medieval period onward. Term used in…

Multiple barriers *umadashi 馬出, erected or naturally occurring…

Also read kasanarizaka. A type of warrior run *mushabashiri…

An arrowroot vine fortress. A temporary fortification that dates to the ancient period. Similar to a briar tree fortresses…

Also written 風子, 翳. Lit. shade. Walls, embankments, or plants used to prevent the enemy from seeing the activities inside a…

Sometimes also written 木戸. A castle door or gate. The entrance and exit to a medieval castle. A simpler structure than the…

Lit. tortoise shell stack. Also called roppōzumi 六法積; or hachi-no-su 蜂の巣 meaning honeycomb or bee hive. An…

A road, or entrance, that is constructed by cutting through mountainous or hilly terrain, leaving sharply hewed vertical…

A man-made, precipitous bank or steep bluff excavated while constructing a road through mountainous terrain *…

Lit. cut and inserted masonry. A type of stone wall *ishigaki 石垣 construction…

Ancient castle ruins in Western Japan. Rows of stones arranged on mountain slopes in Kyūshū 九州 and Western Japan, including…

Lit. tiger mouth. A castle entrance. An early modern term likening the castle gateway to the tooth and fang of a tiger,…

Lit. child castle. A branch castle. The main castle is called oyajiro 親城 (parent castle).

Lit. waist compound. In a mountain castle *yamajiro 山城, a…

Also termed koshimaki-ishigaki 腰巻石垣, a waist-bandstone wall. A stone wall built around the lower part of an earthen…

A small subsidiary tower. When a castle complex has two or more donjons, the largest is called *…

Staggered embankments. A castle-wall design where the left and right embankments *doi…

Also pronounced guri-ishi. Chestnut stones. Small stones (10-30 cm in diameter) that were used as packing or…

Also written 曲輪. The general term for a castle compound. In the medieval period, when a mountain castle *…

A crumbling wall. A type of stone fence *ishigaki 石垣 in which stones are…

Also read ijō and ijiro. A castle or fortification in which the castle lord resides on a daily basis…

1　A manor or palace, yakata 館, where a lord resides.

2　In the case…

A corner loophole or gunport. Loopholes made at a ninety-degree corner of a castle wall, rather than in a flat wall. The…

Lit. "belt compound." A long narrow castle compound. Obiguruwa were often constructed on the top of an earthen…

Lit. "fan slope." Also ōgikōbai 扇勾配 or miyakōbai 宮勾配 (shrine slope). The concave pitch of a stone…

Also written 扇子の縄. A castle plan shaped like a folding fan wherein the fortifications are distributed on either side of the…

Lit. "hillcastle." Also termed kyūryō jōkaku 丘陵城郭.
1　A castle built on a hillock, oka…

A castle wall that is undulates with indentations and protrusions. It is designed to allow for the strategic placement of…

A loophole in a wall *oribei 折塀 that zigzags back and forth like a folding screen *…

Also written 追手.
The front of a castle or fortification. Contrast with karamete 搦手 (the rear of a castle…

The front gate of a castle. Derive from *ōte 大手, the front of a castle or…